Young Nepali cricket fans raise the national flag to celebrate their surprise qualification for the Twenty20 World Cup final in 2014. Image by Manish Paudel, Copyright Demotix (28/11/2013)

While the national cricket team is hopeful of a respectable position in the ICC Twenty20 World Cup[1] cricket being held in Bangladesh this month, Nepalese are enthusiastic about the celebrations of their first ever participation in the World Cup.

The national team’s jersey was unveiled[2] on March 2, 2014 by Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) and Singapore’s multinational sports company BS Sports which is sponsoring the kit. The World T20 will be the first assignment in the newly sponsored kit.

Flag-day celebrations

Just a day after the unveiling ceremony, renowned personalities from various walks of life joined hands to paint Nepal blue by wearing the national team jersey as a flag-day celebration on match days. The flag-day is a global concept which is celebrated to mark historical events. Nepal will play their first match against Hong Kong on 16 March, with Bangladesh on 18 and Afghanistan on 20 March.

Among the celebrities joining hands in the campaign veteran comedy actor Hari Bansha Acharya expressed solidarity[8] in his own style. “I will not wear it on match days only. I will wear it before the game and sleep wearing it so that I could get the glimpse of our cricket team winning in dreams,” said Acharya.

A YouTube video of the comedian duo Madan Krishna Shrestha and Hari Bansha Acharya speaking about the flag-day celebrations:

A dent in the plans

As the Nepalese are eagerly waiting for the moment when their team will take on the giants of cricket this March, a silly mistake in the jersey design is poised to play spoilsport. Instead of the blue border of the Nepalese flag, the design dons a white border.

Those who say blue doesn’t fit well in the blue jersey – have a look at this photo.

The designers, the approval authorities and the kit providers should have taken care to not play with the national colours. Now it is their responsibility to correct the mistake and save spoiling the spirit of the great event and enthusiasm of Nepalese supporters.